Gannon Works to Help Erie's Refugees

For
the thousands of refugees who came to the United States in search of a better life
and are now living in Erie, reality has not always matched their hopes and
aspirations.

At
times, the refugees have been the victims of assault, harassment, and
intimidation.

Gannon
University, through the help of a visiting fellow, has sought to bring greater
awareness to the refugees’ plight and to develop a community-wide approach to
helping them.

The
fellow, Marie Soudnie Rivette of Haiti, has spent nearly three months working
with the refugees. Gannon has hosted Rivette as a fellow through the Community
Solutions Program, a professional development program for the best and
brightest global leaders.

Her
findings recently were shared at a public forum held at Gannon University. Participants included Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri, more than 20 local
refugees, and a number of Gannon University students, faculty, and
administrators.

Rivette’s
work at Gannon has included meeting with more than 70 local refugees – many of
them from Bhutan, Nepal, Somalia, Iraq, Burundi, and Burma – as well as staff
from organizations like Catholic Charities, the International Institute, and
the Multicultural Resource Center. She has conducted a comprehensive study of
the refugees’ experiences, focusing primarily on the manner of violence they
have been exposed to and their coping mechanisms.

Her
work is an important extension of Gannon’s Erie-GAINS (Gannon Alliances to
Improve Neighborhood Sustainability) program, an effort by the University to
serve and support its neighbors and downtown Erie. Many refugees live within
the Erie-GAINS neighborhood, which is bordered by Presque Isle Bay to the
north, Parade Street to the east, Eleventh Street to the south and the Bayfront
Parkway to the west.

Rivette’s
goal was the development of a “community plan” with recommendations designed to
improve the safety, well being, and quality of life of the refugees. Refugees
typically report to being subjected to five types of violence:

·Physical
assaults

·Verbal
harassment

·Intimidation

·Property
vandalism

·Robbery/burglary

In
some cases, refugees have been reluctant to contact police because of language
barriers and because they are not comfortable seeking help, for fear of
retribution. “The causes of the violence need to be examined further,” Rivette
said. “The challenges the refugees have encountered are substantial -- helping
them in a meaningful way and creating lasting solutions will require a
widespread, community-based effort.”

Rivette
said there are practical steps that could at least serve as a starting point
for helping the refugees. Those steps include improving the level of communication
between refugees and their neighbors and reviewing with the refugees procedures
they should follow in the event that they are victimized.